BURGOS, Diocese of. – In Old Castile (Spain). Once the Greek or Roman origin of the city of Burgos is dismissed as unfounded, its foundation—and thus that of its church—must be admitted as occurring immediately after the expulsion of the Saracens from that region, namely two years after the victory at Pancorbo (882), achieved by Count Diego Rodriguez under the banner of King Alfonso III of Asturias. For the first ninety years, the city and its territory were subject ecclesiastically to the now-extinct diocese of Valpuesta, which had been united for some centuries with the older see of Auca or Oca, destroyed along with the city during the Arab domination. In 1052, the Valpuesta see, which had been aggregated to that of Nájera (the residence of the prelate of Calahorra during the Moorish rule over that city), ceased to exist; thereafter, documents pertaining to the Burgos territory mention only the revived see of Oca and, occasionally, that of Burgos, whose bishop, however, did not reside in the capital until 1074, even though the diocese had already been established nearly a century earlier. After the death of the last bishop of Oca, named Nunio (c. 1079), the diocese was governed by the prelate of Burgos, who soon rose to great importance. The latter’s pretensions were contested by the metropolitan of Toledo, who insisted that the new diocese declare itself his suffragan, despite Tarragona’s claim, to which the ancient bishop of Oca had been subject. Pope Urban II, however, settled the controversy in 1097 by granting that the see of Burgos should be immediately under the jurisdiction of the Holy See, and it remained a simple diocese until Gregory XIII, at the request of King Philip II, elevated it in 1574 to the rank of archdiocese, which it retains today with the suffragans of Palencia, León, Santander, Calahorra, Burgo de Osma, and Vitoria. Several important provincial councils were held in Burgos, where matters concerning the entire kingdom were discussed. The first was held in 1085 under the presidency of Cardinal Riccardo, sent there by Pope St Gregory VII at the request of King Alfonso VI to introduce the Roman liturgy into the kingdom, which was still in use of the Visigothic or Mozarabic rite. Another council was celebrated in Burgos in 1136, presided over by Cardinal Guido, on the occasion of the discord between the first archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and King Alfonso VII, styled Emperor; it was almost a national council, with bishops from León, Castile, and Galicia in attendance. A third important council was held there in 1379 to resolve the critical issue of the Western Schism; despite King John I of Castile’s inclination to recognize the pope of Avignon, the council appears to have adopted a position of neutrality.
Among the bishops of Burgos, noteworthy figures include Maurice, who with King St Ferdinand founded in 1221 the remarkable cathedral church; Ludovicus Acuña Ossorio (d. 1495), to whom the cloister of the same cathedral is owed; John Alvarez de Toledo, who constructed the great crossing of the same church; the writers Paul of St Mary, Alfonso of St Mary, or of Cartagena, Joseph Rodriguez de Fonseca; and the cardinals I. López de Mendoza, J. Alvarez de Toledo, F. de Mendoza y Bobadilla, F. Pacheco de Toledo, A. Zapata, F. de la Fuente, G. Aguirre, and J. Benlloch (d. 1926), founder of the Seminary of Foreign Missions.
Historically significant within the diocese are the two ancient Benedictine abbeys of Oña and Silos (S. Ruiz, s.V. in DHG, X, cols. 1308–51; Cottineau, II, cols. 2130–31 and 3036–37).
The cathedral archive preserves a manuscript of the Gospels from the 11th century; a chronicle from the 15th century; a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible; and the collection known as the *libros Redondos* from 1352.
Art. – Though scant traces remain of the first cathedral built in 1075 by order of Alfonso VI, the most remarkable structure is the present cathedral in the form of a Latin cross, one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic art and the first of its kind constructed in Spain. Begun in 1221, it was completed in the 15th century; the imposing façade in three tiers, the work of John of Cologne (1442–58), is adorned with two intricately perforated towers and a dome begun in 1539 to the design of Felipe de Vigarny the Burgundian but completed (1567) by Juan de Vallejo. Notable are the doors of the Coronería and the Sacramental at the ends of the transept, with 13th-century sculptures, and that of the Pellejería in Plateresque style. Inside, especially worthy of note are the choir with magnificent carvings by Vigarny, and the tomb of Bishop Maurice in copper and Limoges enamel; the chapel containing the tombs of Constable Pedro Fernández de Velasco and his wife; the chapel of St Anne by Simon of Cologne with the tomb of Bishop Acuña, the work of Diego de Siloé; the chapel of the Presentation with a Madonna by Sebastiano del Piombo; and the chapel of the *Corpus Christi*, where the casket of El Cid is preserved. The adjoining cloister dates from the 14th century.
Also notable are the Gothic churches of SS Cosmas and Damian (13th century), St Stephen (1280–1350; remarkable for its choir, pulpit, and the tomb of Juan García de Castro), and St Giles, dating from the same period; that of St Lesmes (1380); St Nicholas of Bari (15th century) with a marble altarpiece by Francisco de Colonia and one from the school of Navarre (15th century); St Gadea and St Giles, which contains two paintings by Mengs.
Civil architecture is characterized by the town hall and the episcopal palace, the arches of St Stephen and St Martin from the period of Arab domination, and the triumphal arch in honour of Fernán González, first Count of Castile, to whom the castle belonged and which was also the residence of the kings of Castile. Typical are the old Gothic-Renaissance houses of El Cordon (1482), Miranda (1543; with the most elegant *patio* in Burgos), and Íñigo Angulo (second half of the 16th century).
Two kilometres from the city lie Las Huelgas, transformed in 1187 by Alfonso VIII into a monastery whose church (1249) contains sarcophagi of kings and knights, and the Charterhouse of Miraflores (second half of the 15th century), a Gothic-Renaissance work by John and Simon of Cologne, notable also for the richest mausoleum in Spain, the work of Diego de Siloé, for John II and Isabella of Portugal. – See Pl. XVIII.